British Sea Power - Valhalla Dancehall (Rough Trade)
People just don't seem to get British Sea Power at all, particularly not here in the States. While they seemed to generate some positive buzz with their first two albums (The Decline of British Sea Power and Open Season), it seems that people just don't know what to do with them anymore. As the band has evolved over the course of their career, critics seem to be confused about how seriously the band should be taken. They hear the soaring anthems with big choruses and lazily dismiss them as U2 or Coldplay imitators, but those people are completely missing the point or, at the very least, not listening to anything beyond the singles. Because, as this record proves, BSP have evolved well beyond such easy dismissals. Sure, they are still pouring part of themselves into arena-rattling anthems from time to time ("Who's In Control", "We Are Sound" and "Heavy Water" are three of them here), but that is such a small portion of their sound that it becomes disingenuous to only focus on that aspect. Valhalla Dancehall finds the band stretching in several different directions at once. On one hand they're cranking out the rousing anthems we've always known they're capable of, but they're also reaching into more atmospheric terrain - particularly on Neil Hamilton Wilkinson's songs, including the 11-minute "Once More Now" and the 7-minute "Cleaning Out the Rooms". Each of these songs evoke stark landscapes and endless horizons, providing a brilliant counterpart to the short bursts of energy. Which isn't to say that BSP doesn't stretch out within the more tightly structured songs as well. "Living is So Easy" is an unexpected joy of a synth-pop single, while "Mongk II" makes great use of layered guitars for a more aggressive take on early 90's shoegaze. The gorgeous "Baby", another Hamilton tune, is the most evocative of the entire album, conjuring up images of the gently rolling sea with what almost sound like whale songs bubbling beneath the surface of this gentle, glacially-paced ballad. What ties the entire record together is the band's sense of dynamics and how skilled they are at working the quiet-loud-quiet formula. And no, this isn't as simple a case as the Pixies quiet verse bursting into a loud chorus, the turns here are often more subtle and gentle. Even "Thin Black Sail" manages to traverse wide ground in its 106 seconds, shifting from a thrashing punk attack to a twisted, "psychedelic" bridge before ending up back where it started. By allowing their three fantastic songwriters to pull the music in multiple directions at once, British Sea Power have evolved into a truly engaging unit that manages to surprise at nearly every turn. Its just a shame that so many people aren't willing to take that ride along with them.
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